If you do Kondo folding of clothes...

[Chocchops72]

... do you also have to put everything away?

Me, DH, 2 x DS. We live in a small-ish flat and Kondo clothes-folding method has been a huge space saver: my kids basically have 2.5 drawers each and that will take all their clothes, pretty much, and no wardrobe as nothing needs hung up). Pants, socks, t shirts (long and short sleeved), shorts / trousers etc. However this only works when things are folded and put away kondo-style.

I work part-time, DH very full-time, both DSs are teens in school. I do the great majority of housework, including the laundry. DH does his bit around his work. I have recently increased my hours at work, and we are looking at ways to increase what the DSs do around the house.

Laundry is a never ending mountain to climb! We don't have a tumble dryer (don't have space / want one) so everything needs to be washed, hung out, then folded / ironed (don't iron much), and put away.

The problem is that I am the only one who folds things Kondo-style. DH would definitely learn. The DSs... not so much. And I could ask them to put their own laundry away... but they would not do it 'properly'. And then run out of space / everything's just crammed in. They don't care TBH. No school uniforms here, they live in jeans / t-shirts / tracky bottoms, none of which look terrible when crumpled.

Am I being too picky / controlling? How do you organise laundry so that it's not a one-person job? Should I just stop caring what happens after I've folded it and let them work out their own way of putting it away, as long as it's done and I don't have to do it?

Would reducing the number of clothes your dc have be an option?

Depending on the ages of the dc, this could be a problem you hand off to them - as long as the problem stays in their space, it’s really only affecting them. So they either learn to store their clothes efficiently, live with less or live with mess.

If you really can’t bear the last option then you probably need to accept the extra workload of folding.

I have a slightly different situation - I fold (not Kondo but a variation that won’t fall apart easily) for my autistic dc, so that he can see, and select his clothes and out them away without pulling things out or making a mess. I think I’m trying to say that you need to work out what the highest priority is and go from there, and accept that there’s a downside either way.

They only have 2.5 drawers for absolutely everything? I’d get them additional storage and get them to put their clothes away themselves.

In my house I fold my own things Kondo-style. Everyone else puts their own clothes away. It's their choice how they do that - not my problem!

I taught my children to roll their clothes. They manage this and it has the same effect as a kondo fild. Tiny bit more space i guesd, but you open a draw and can see everything in neat lines.

When I sort the laundry everyone gets given their pile and its up to them how they out it away. I roll mine and it makes a huge difference. My teens and DH would benefit from it too but aren't interested so their stuff is messy but really its up to them. In the case of the DCs they do need more storage but don't want their rooms changing (they are small rooms and it would need a total reorganise). So they live with the mess.

My teen dds (who are both studying away from home now) did their own laundry from the age of 14 years.

Before that, between the ages of about 10 and 14 years, I delivered clean clothes to them in their individual laundry baskets on their beds in their rooms. The clothes were smoothed out of the tumble dryer and folded normally. They sometimes put them away and they sometimes didn’t. Their choice!

Up to the age of 10 years, I put all their clean clothing away in their drawers and wardrobes. As I wash and fold one load daily, it was a job that needed doing daily, usually around bath/bedtime.

I do think having adequate storage space is necessary though. We each have one chest of drawers and one wardrobe. The amount of clothes we each own, is down to how much fits comfortably fits in our individual storage.

If necessary, one old item goes out so a new item can go in.

Keep a supermarket bag for life stowed away in each room so anything for charity shop can go in there straightaway it gets too small or isn’t worn.

If your teen sons favour a more casual style of storage maybe just a couple of freestanding drawers or hampers would suit them better? Or buy them two laundry baskets each with handles, you sort clothes downstairs in to piles, and they take them upstairs to their rooms and store them behind a curtain or screen?

The only washing and folding I did for teens over 14 years was their bed linen, towels, and the odd bit of urgent sport or dance kit.

Sorry op, I just realised you wanted answers from Kondo devotees! I never found that the system worked very well once we had dc! I think even MK herself has admitted that.

I would get the children and DH to do the other parts of the washing eg loading, hanging up etc and you do the folding and they do the putting away? Or can they do other chores while you do that?

If they won’t do Kondo, would they use one of these folders. Perhaps then if they fold the item in half it could fit neatly into the drawer.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HWT2FKD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think if you want/need such a 'fussy' way of folding it's on you to do it.

it's not the kids fault there's not enough room to put their clothes away 'normally' (a big enough challenge for parents/teenagers).

id see if there anywhere else they can use for their clothes (roll out drawers under their beds/drawers for day hoodies in a communal area) but if not & the only way to fit an average/required amount of their clothing in their bedrooms is kondo style, then you need to do it.

Allocate different jobs to them if you need their help.

My version is to just fold my normally- folded stuff in half again. It then goes into plastic boxes that are already in the drawer.

I am a Kondo devotee. No DCs but I fold for DH and often end up putting it away as if he does it he rushes and the clothes end up falling over and creased.

We don't have that many items of clothing between us (me, husband and toddler), maybe one weeks worth of winter things and summer things each, and not that much space. We do the Kondo folding method. I am better at it than husband (and quicker) so I do end up doing all of our sons folding 😅

We tend to do the putting away of the clothing before bed. I deliberately dump the clothes onto our bed and take the laundry basket downstairs so that we can't just decide to do it another night. We sort the laundry into three piles, then ball all socks and fold the underwear, then we fold the rest of our own clothes and put them away.

I tend to do son's clothes during his bedtime routine when my husband is brushing son's teeth or reading him a story.